Danny Feck

20 November 2015

Prof. Blanco

Social Media Debate

Part Two

Concerns within the reading are, “more than 170 million Americans use social

media to communicate with each other online, but critics say the technology can

endanger privacy rights and hamper the development of vital, face-to-face interpersonal

skills.” This shows that if we keep up what we are doing that in the near future there will

be no such thing as face-to-face contact and everyone will be glued to a technological

device of some sort. Rumors are spread very fast over the social media. To back my

argument up I will use the Manti Te’o hoax. This shows how social media can make

someone believe something that is not true. Another concern about social media is

privacy. Privacy is key to being able to be apart of the online world. Privacy is a big

problem in the US because we don’t have data protection. This is an issue because

without protection you never know where all your stuff can end up. A concerning factor

about social media’s is a statistic that I found from the article taking between 1990 and

1999. They all preferred texting over all other forms of communication. Social Media

doesn’t help self-esteem either, the article talks about how girls who in real life are often

constrained in their roles are more outgoing online. These examples here show what the

negatives are from being behind any type of screen for a long period of time, it can even

change you.

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Even though there are consequences to social media, there are also benefits.

Social media helps us figure things out faster that are going on in the world. An example

of this is the attack on Paris, I wouldn’t have known that had happen if it wasn’t for

social media. I got notifications on my twitter and Facebook. An argument about good

benefits of social media is that through twitter you can organize big events, for example,

in the article they talked about #riotcleanup, which rallied people to clean up the streets

all around the world.

The concerns about social media are how people act on Twitter, Twitter can be a

great way to get certain points out but only use Twitter to organize protest or events or

hurt us it shows why people are concerned with the path we are going down with social

media. Relationship’s are a concern when it comes to technology, people are not taking

as big as risks when it comes to showing people who they truly are. People would rather

like to stay in and talk to people online. Social Media is making people be less outgoing

and making them feel as texting is the best way to contact someone or get their word out.

Social media is a concern because people are starting to show how they are becoming

obsessed with their smartphones. In the article it states that many cannot good morning

than 10 minutes without checking their phone or social media. From 2009 to 2013 the

amount of users went up from 84.3 1.52.1. This is a concern because it shows that kids

are being introduced to social media at a younger age and it is affecting the way they act

later on life. We need to find ways to slow down on how media is given to children for

future generations we’ll be missing out on important people skills.

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Social media has affected democratic societies in a very positive way. Politicians

are able to get to point out faster and spread it quicker. Social media has made it easier

for politicians to get your point across without even traveling they’re able to debate

public issues from their own home for free instead of traveling around the country. Hey

good example of this is Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaign operations because he used

Facebook to gain supporters.

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Part Three

Have you ever thought about how social media could possibly be one of the

biggest problems of our generation? We use social media in our everyday lives, we think

it might be helping but behind the scenes it is actually hurting us. In class we talked about

both the positive and negatives of social media. I will be sharing with you today on how

social media is hurting us.

In an article about how children learn to interpret risky opportunities on social

network sites, one kid told a story about how he was trying to stop cyber-bullying. A kid

in his class took a photo of a boy and edited to make it look funny. He than sent it around

to people and the kid who was in the photo got made fun of. The defendant did what was

best and went up to people and told them how would you feel if that was you in the

photo. These kids were between the ages of eleven and twelve. This is a problem because

this shows how children at such a young age are getting into the social media issues and

causing problems. As they grow older this will lead to bigger issues in that school

community. This story leads into my other argument because this shows where it all

begins and where it can lead for these boys in the future.

We see media around us each and everyday, there is no way of escaping it. One

way media is connected to social media is body image. The body images we see in the

media are portrayed to be real, but they are not. The body types we see are not attainable

in reality. There are several studies, that investigate the negative consequences of body

image on male body perception and satisfaction, which all suggest a similar conclusion:

The media has a negative influence on body perception and satisfaction (Agliata &

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Tantleff-Dunn, 2004; Leit, Gray, & Pope, 2002). This just comes to prove the point that

everything we see in social media is not always true.

In conclusion, social media is not benefiting us in a lot of positive ways, it is

actually hurting us more than helping us. We need to find better ways to control it for

future generations before it gets out off hand and the whole world revolves around it. I

have learned from this experiment that I need to truly think about what I am reading

before I believe it is true and talk about it. In that case I need to look and see if the

sources are credible and not just rumors made up.

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Works Cited

Clemmitt, M. (2013, January 25). Social Media explosion. CQ

Researcher, 23, 81-104. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/

Livingstone, Sonia. "Developing Social Media Literacy: How Children

Learn To Interpret Risky Opportunities On Social Network Sites." Communications: The

European Journal Of Communication Research 39.3 (2014): 283-303. Communication &

Mass Media Complete. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

Hargreaves, Duane A., and Marika Tiggemann. "Muscular Ideal Media

Images And Men's Body Image: Social Comparison Processing And Individual

Vulnerability." Psychology Of Men & Masculinity 10.2 (2009): 109-119. Academic

Search Premier. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

Sohn, Steve H. "Body Image: Impacts Of Media Channels On Men's And

Women's Social Comparison Process, And Testing Of Involvement Measurement."

Atlantic Journal Of Communication 17.1 (2009): 19-35. Communication & Mass Media

Complete. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

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